WZTA-AM/107.9 FM Vero Beach flips to Oldies

[John FL]

iHeartMedia's WZTA-AM translating on 107.9 has flipped to oldies. (Vero's Real Oldies) It's a 60s and 70s mix and done done quite well. There are syndicated personalities given the format some life:

https://www.iheart.com/live/oldies-1079-1370-4788/

For those of you who followed my Florida ratings post will recall I devoted an entire page to WZTA and its uniqueness as a talk station featuring the local "Mayor of the Airwaves" who this year celebrated 25 years at the local Vero news/talk station. It's all over. Amazing how quickly radio news reporting can be stale and inaccurate. It's a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

Perhaps a little bit of reality at play here but with the flip, Rush Limbaugh doesn't have a home in the Vero Beach area. There is another local news/talk station, WTTB-AM/105.7 FM that has syndicated conservative talkers. I doubt anyone will pick Rush locally unless he makes a remarkable recovery.

iHeartMedia also owns Classic Hits 103.7 WQOL but from what I can tell, song overlap is very rare indeed. Interestingly, the FM was long referred to as WAXE pronounced WAXY. From a brand perspective that sounded way more like nostalgia music and not news/talk. And so it goes.

The 107.9 translator fades in very northern St. Lucie County replaced by West Palm Beach's WEAT (Sunny 107.3), a well-done classic hits station. It's all good.

 

[Alex Browne]

The 107.9 translator fades in very northern St. Lucie County replaced by West Palm Beach's WEAT (Sunny 107.3), a well-done classic hits station. It's all good.

That's Sunny 107.9, John. You're right: WEAT is what we hear on 107.9 in St. Lucie West.

 

[John FL]

We are lucky to live in an interesting and above-average radio market, Alex. The Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast markets don't get a lot of attention on these boards but the formats offered do give listeners of all ages a good deal of choice. Many are done quite well.

To be honest, I was very surprised that iHeartMedia offered the oldies format in their Premium Choice programming. I spent the last few days checking out various stations around the country besides "Vero's Real Oldies." Interestingly, in some markets there is a local morning show that is programmed differently than what is syndicated. One station even mentioned 80s in their oldies brand. I heard a Prince tune, for example.

I suppose a good deal has to do with the market, the competition, the signal strength, and whether iHeart has a Classic Hits station in the market. There's a decent "DJ" lineup in their Premium Choice oldies format. The music has a lot of variety and they get as "modern" as offering songs from the late 70s too. I'm very impressed in how well iHeart's various Premium Choice formats sound. From what I can tell, it's been quite the improvement from say, ten years ago.

During my research for the Florida ratings post, I heard a number of syndicated formats offered by Cumulus. iHeart clearly has the advantage. By simply listening, I found Cumulus just sounded okay. I don't know enough about Cumulus to have other opinions but I suspect their syndicated programing may indeed do the job for them. iHeart gets a lot of bad commentary on the radio boards. Maybe some is justified. But from a music perspective, they have developed a good sound that helps solidify their brands.

For reasons we all understand, the oldies format is mostly offered via a translator or perhaps a Class A signal. In Vero, it's not the best signal but there's streaming availability and just a nice to have in the car to hear songs no one else in the market is playing. I suspect with all the retirees in the area, there is potential in selling locally to 55+. This is an improvement from the news/talk mixed bag they previously had.